She's Got You Stumbling
by SecretChances
Summary: Congratulations, you've joined the ranks of all the rest. They've fallen for her, but she's always had your heart. A New Year's fic with the Glee kids and Will. Enjoy! UPDATED!
1. Chapter 1: New Year's Choices

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing you no sue. _Gypsy Woman_ is by Hilary Duff thus it belongs to her. :D Glee belongs to Fox. I am simply borrowing the characters for a little bit of New Year's Eve fun! I will return them next year with slight hangovers and no rememberance of their escapades that I will put them through.

**A/N:** Uh yeah, so, I told my friend Katie I would have a Will/Emma shipper story up soon but aparently my muse doesn't like them together. I do have an undying dedication to Will though. So, as you may have expected, this has Will in it. and the rest of the Glee kids hope you enjoy!

**Pairing:** Will/Rachel, duh. God I love these two! They make me too happy. :D:D

**Rating: **T for teen drinking (gotta love Puck huh?)

* * *

Fire crackers popped in the sky lighting up the park with colors of neon pink and blue and green. There were whoops and hollers and he looked to see Puck and Finn drunk off their asses lighting more sparklers and watching as they colored the air around them. Just behind the pair sat Quinn, Santana and Brittney. Santana and Brittney were in their Cherrios uniform per Sue Sylvester's orders. He had heard them talking about changing at midnight for the dancing but he highly doubted they would do it because they were far too scared of their cheer coach. Quinn was wearing a short sleved white baby doll top with a button down fuzzy pink cardigan hanging loosly on her shoulders. She nursed what he only assumed was a water while her two friends sipped on large bottles of wine coolers. He had protested when Puck arrived with a trunk and a back seat full of booze but after much persuasion allowed them all to drink. They were with him and he knew that if they didn't drink there they would somewhere else posing a problem to them and everyone around them. Oh he knew they'd all regret it later but they were going to be there for a while--they decided to camp there for the night--so there would be no driving.

"Thank god," he muttered as he lifted the warm bottle of beer he had to his lips. He took a swig savoring the flavor but shuddering at the temperature.

He jumped off his sky blue piece of crap car. In the distance, just past Finn and Puck, he saw Kurt and Mercedes arm-in-arm near the pond. She was wearing his white fedora and he was wearing one of her newest leopard print scarves. He chuckled and shook his head. He wondered, though he knew Kurt was gay, how long it would take for him to realize that he and Mercedes were next to perfect for each other. But, he knew those two would never be more than friends because as it's been pointed out, Kurt is gay. Not only just gay more like _flaming_ gay and that's why they all love him. He knows that too.

He chuckled again and made his way to the party cooler Finn had brought. The ice was slowly melting but the ice chest sitting beside it held two more bags so they were far from running out. He bent down and grabbed a Miller Lite before straightening up to return to his perch on the hood of his car. Emma sat a few feet away from him. He could see her flaming red hair and her big doe eyes glittering in the moonlight and fireworks. She looked over dressed but she was impecable in the deep emerald green sweater and white pencil skirt she was wearing. He thought it odd that she would be in white and in a park but he could see the red and white checked picnic blanket underneath her. It absorbed most of the germs, he infered. He watched as she pulled a zip lock bag of grapes from her little lunch box she had brought with her. He took another drink of his fresh beer as she began to clean each individual grape.

He wondered why she had even bothered to come. Yes, he knew she still liked him but after the kiss, they had decided to take it slow. Real slow. He had just left Terri and she had just broken Ken's heart. He guessed it was because she was so dedicated. She was also the only one--besides Quinn--_not_ drinking so that helped as well. If anyone, for some reason, wanted to leave, she would be able to drive them, provided they didn't hurl in her car. That'd send her on a collison course with just about anything.

He merely smiled and took his mind off of her. He had other problems to contend with. Like whether Puck and Finn were going to burn themselves on the firecrackers they insisted on shooting off even though they were a good half hour away from midnight.

"Hey guys!" He yelled. The two drunk boys looked up, knowing they were who he was talking to. "Save some for later!" They both gave a thumbs up and went to go talk to the girls on the benches behind them.

He breathed a sigh of relief then happened to spot Artie and Tina. They were both lying on their backs staring at the stars and the night sky. Artie's wheelchair sat off to the side. He grinned. Those two had gotten closer since sectionals. He would see them together in the music room after rehearsals. She'd be on his lap and he would wheel her out with him, her arms around his neck.

He was amazed at how quickly relationships started and ended in highschool. He remembered his own high school years and could only count on one hand how many people he knew had more than one relationship. That was back before cell phones and Twitter had made it easy to cheat. But as he watched his glee kids mingle and make memories he knew they'd never forget, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. They had--he looked at his watch--twenty minutes until the new year. They had drinks, they were all laid back, they were all at peace and _happy_. In fact, he could never remember them so happy. The last year had taken it's toll on them. They had been through the hell that was Sue Sylvester and they had been through baby drama and fights and football and yet, there they were. Content. At peace.

He could just make out the sound of car wheels on gravel when he saw everyone approaching the fire pit in the middle the space they occupied. He sat his beer on the roof of his car and decided to join. Everyone paired up. Tina sat next to Artie. Finn sat next to Quinn. Puck sat between Brittney and Santana and he ended up next to Emma. Mercedes and Kurt sat away from each other. Kurt by Finn and Mercedes by Quinn.

"Mr. Schue, we'll start with you."

Will smiled. "What is this?"

"New Year's resolutions," Puck slurred.

Their teacher laughed. It proved infectious as all let grins creep across their faces. For once he was happy and they were gratefull he was.

He sighed. "New Year's resolutions. Hmm..." he trailed off and turned to Emma. "I'll pass on this round. What is your resolution this year, Ms. Pillsbury?"

She wrinkled her face in thought. "Oh gosh." She stayed silent for a little bit then said, "To not let my mysopobic tendencies get the best of me. If there is a smudge on a window or a desk or coffee pot, I will resist the urge to go and scrub it with a toothbrush."

All the kids began to giggle.

"Sounds good Ms. P!" Finn began to drink another Smirnoff but Quinn quickly grabbed it away from him and gave it to Kurt who gladly guzzled it down with Tina staring in amazement.

"Mercedes?"

"I want to sing a solo for the school's talent show and not get laughed at or things get thrown at me." She nodded in a diva like way and passed it on to Quinn.

The blonde, former Cherrio rubbed her stomach absent mindedly. "I don't want to lie." She looked at Finn. "Or keep things from people who matter to me." She couldn't bear to look at her teacher but she knew Mr. Schue understood what she was talking about.

It was quiet for a few seconds before Finn said, "My New Year's resolution," the group began giggling again as he spoke. The slurr had gotten worse despite the fact he hadn't had any more booze. "is to attempt to take my team all the way to Nationals!" There were horays and cheers all around the camp fire. Those with alcohol lifted their drinks in toasts.

"Nationals aren't until the summer," Will said with a smile. The beer he had drank was beginning to work through his system. He felt loopy and oddly amused.

Finn simply shrugged then hit Kurt spilling some of the fruity drink he had in a martini glass. "Hey!" He protested. "This is Marc Jacobs!"

"Sorry buddy." The football star apologized. "It's your turn."

The younger boy, clearly drunk along with all the rest of them, attempted to clean up but gave up. He took a dainty sip of whatever it was he was drinking and looked at the group. He was about to say something when Will felt another presence beside him. In a simple pair of jeans and a crisp blue long sleeved shirt, Rachel Berry sat cross legged on the grass. An unopened wine cooler laid between her legs. She did nothing to bring attention to herself and it struck him as odd. This wasn't the Rachel he knew. The Rachel he knew would've announced her arrival with a flurry of brown hair and a dainty wave. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but it seemed as if something was wrong with the sixteen year old.

He stopped listening to the resolutions and began watching the brunette. He watched as she slowly unscrewed the bottle top to her wine cooler. Her slender fingers bent and flexed with grace. The muscles in her arms bulged as she struggled for a few seconds then finally got the stubborn cap to budge. Everything about her spoke of a dancer's body. The way she breathed and carried herself even the way she sat on the soft ground. She was lithe and in a way, fragile. He attributed it to the booze but he suddenly wanted to know what she looked like under that shirt. He imagined perfection. Her peaches and creme skin moist from the strawberry lotion he knew she used. Her stomach flat and taut, her sure to have six pack barely showing but there nonetheless.

He shook his head and averted his eyes away from her. That mashup he had sung to her now took a new meaning. In the back of his mind, he knew this would happen. There were nights where he wished it was her lying beside him but as the song said, she was half his age. It couldn't happen.

"Mr. Schue?"

His head snapped up. All his kids were staring at him like he had gone mental.

"Alcohol getting to you?" Puck asked laughing at a joke no one knew but himself.

He gave a short nervous chuckle. "My turn already?" They all nodded. "My New Year's resolution is..." he trailed off once again, at a loss for words. "My New Year's resolution is to live life to the fullest and have no regrets."

"Yeah! Go Mr. Schue!" Everyone chimed in unison.

He knew they all thought he was talking about Emma but he knew better.

"Rachel," he turned to the girl beside her. "Have you gone?" She shook her head. "Well it's your turn then."

She took a drink of the wine cooler wincing as the alcohol burned her throat. "You know my resolution." Then she got up not caring what anyone speculated.

They disbanded after that everyone following Puck and Finn for the fireworks. Will checked his watch. Five minutes until midnight. He returned to the hood of his car and finished off another warm beer. Five minutes and all he had been through would be year behind him. Only problem with that was, his and Terri's divorce was to take place in the new year. He was going to loose everything. He wasn't sure how the new year was to compare to the old one but he knew one thing, he and Terri were no more and he had no one to turn to.

"Hi, Mr. Schue." He turned to see Rachel standing in front of him her arms crossed behind her back. "Mind if I join you?"

He scooted over and patted the metal space beside him. She slid beside him grinning in appreciation. For a long while, they laid on the hood their heads on the windshield, watching the stars twinkle through the fireworks clouds and the light from the full moon.

Two minutes.

Rachel turned over to face her teacher. "You know what my resolution really is?" He looked at her expectantly. "I want to find someone to love."

One minute.

"There's someone out there for everyone."

She nodded then got up to join the rest of the group. As she left, Emma approached him slowly. He sat up and grinned. She returned the gesture. She gingerly perched herself where Rachel had vacated.

"Look at you! You already are doing better."

She laughed. "It's a lot harder than it looks." She was quiet for a brief moment. "She really likes you, you know?"

"I can't be with her."

"I know," Emma said quickly. "But it's New Year's and whatever you do now, Will, will make whatever happens the rest of the year that much better," She paused then whispered, "or worse."

Twelve o'clock.

Puck began the fireworks while everyone else found themselves people to kiss. He leaned in to place a kiss on Emma's forehead then jumped off the hood of his car. He saw her sitting near the fire, her face and hair bathed in the yellow and orange light of the fire and the pinks and blues and greens of the fireworks. No one else noticed she was alone but him. The rest of the glee kids were too caught up in the lips of their significant other. If he thought about it, Puck should've been the one with her but he knew better. They didn't like each other and truth be known, Puck would love to be Finn at that moment.

"Rach."

She glanced up and their eyes met. Will grabbed her arm and pulled her up from the log to collide with his body. She gasped.

"Screw the rules."

He placed her head in his hands, leaned in, and kissed her soundly on her soft pink lips. She froze. He suddenly got nervous but he didn't let go. Instead, he snaked his arms around her waist and gripped her hips closer to him. He could feel her body, strong yet tiny at the same time, pressed against his. He felt her relax and her hands began to tangle in his curly hair. Over the fireworks and the crackle of the wood, they heard claps and wolf whistles but he didn't care. All this would be a distant memory in the morning...

...but for Will, he would never forget this moment. Even though he could never have her, she would always have him. She would always have a piece of his heart.


	2. Chapter 2: Here's to Something New

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing you no sue. _Gypsy Woman_ is by Hilary Duff thus it belongs to her. :D Glee belongs to Fox. I told you I would return them unharmed but I don't know who's gonna forget this night and who wont. :D Just letting you know that.

**A/N:** Uh yeah, so, I knew you guys wanted a proper ending. Well, welcome to that proper ending. I hope it lives up to what you wanted. Of course, I can't please everyone. Just hope you enjoy it!

**Pairing:** Will/Rachel, duh. God I love these two! They make me too happy. :D:D

**Rating: **T for mentions of sex.

**Summary:** Congratulations, you've joined the ranks of all the rest. They've fallen for her, but she's always had your heart.

* * *

The kids had all gone to sleep shortly after all the liquor and fire crackers were depleted. A grand majority of them huddled in the back seats of cars or in plush down sleeping bags they had brought themselves. He walked around to make sure they all were not only comfortable but also not doing anything they would regret later.

After his rounds, he stumbled to his own car to find Rachel and Emma talking to each other as they leaned on a passenger side door. He felt awkward but approached them with a smile. Emma waved and told him she was off to her house. He understood. She might be making a resolution to be better but a self proclaimed mysophobe such as herself needed to take baby steps.

They waved goodbye to each other and he watched as she got in her car then pulled out of the parking lot with a crunch of her tires. With her gone it left him and Rachel alone. He invited her into his back seat which she gladly accepted. He could tell she was cold and it was the least he could do for her after he "assaulted" her earlier that night.

"Thank you," she whispered as he crawled in after her.

"You're welcome."

She shivered again. It didn't escape Will's perceptive glance. He ushered her closer to him and draped his arm around her shoulder. She snuggled up to his side and rested her head on his chest.

"Rachel?"

"Hmm?" She mumbled, her voice muffled by his sweater vest and muddled from the alcohol.

"We can't do this," he whispered."I just left my wife."

She nodded. "I know. You're my teacher. I'm your student. It's wrong."

Despite their objections to each other, rules were meant to be broken.

High school went by like a wildfire. Glee club went on to win regionals and state. At the National competition, they lost to a group from Los Angeles but they took away the second place spot and vowed to return stronger than ever. The summer after they graduated, was the summer they took National victory. Rachel got a scholarship to Julliard and turned it down. She had other asperations outside of the stage and she wanted to see them through.

Neither she or Will discussed what had happened that New Years Eve. No one else remembered the kiss and Emma never brought anything up. In a way, he was grateful but in another way, he was nervous. He was forgetting the way she felt. He was forgetting the way she tasted. That was the worst of it all.

After Rachel graduated, he found himself gravitating back to Emma. He knew he was using her but she never said anything about it. She had seen him loose two women in his life, she was the one to pick everything back up. She made the world make sense again.

Four years and three Nationals wins later, he saw her again. He wasn't sure what he saw first, her brown hair or the box of personals. Regardless, as soon as she began walking toward the school, he knew it was her. It was unmistakable. The swish of her hair, the roll of her hips...he was transported to the back of his car New Year's Eve. He watched her for a few seconds before he ran up to her. She couldn't see him over the box and when he spoke, he didn't recognize his voice.

"Can I help you?"

"Oh," she laughed. It was music to his ears. "Yes thank you!"

He took the box from her arms and when he did, their eyes met. He had never believed movie moments could happen in real life but at that moment, he believed. Time stood still and the rest of the world became a blur. All he could see was her and her bright brown eyes and the smile he missed most of all. He watched as she blinked and the gears in her head began turning. They hadn't seen each other since the last Glee rehearsal senior year and to be honest, he had changed. Teaching took a lot out of you after a while. His dirty blonde hair was graying in places and there were a few telltale wrinkles on his forehead. He had also gained a few pounds from Emma's wonderful cooking but mostly he was the same.

"Mr. Schue!" She exclaimed with a breath.

"That's me."

Her mouth gaped opened. "I can't believe you still work here! It's been what, five years?"

"Four," he replied a little too quickly. He'd been counting, not that he ever expected to see her again. He always figured she'd end up on Broadway and the only place he'd see her would be the newspaper or internet. He never expected this. "What brings back to Lima 'looser-hood'?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure, other than the fact my dads live here and New York was crazy. I've come to find out I am _not_ a city girl."

"Julliard?"

"They asked me back but I said no. Wanted to be a teacher."

They silently took that as a cue to walk to the empty school. It wasn't the beginning of the year quite yet but per school policy teachers were to be there a week before classes began. As they walked, he told her all the goings on she had missed while she had been gone. Figgins was still the principal and Emma was still the counselor. Sue Sylvester had been fired for some forgetable mishap and had been recently replaced by Quinn Puckerman. Noah was the football coach and Finn was the basketball coach. Mercedes and Kurt were apparently living in Los Angeles. Mercedes was a famous R & B singer--Will had her debut CD, signed with a note of thanks--and Kurt was an interior designer. Brittney and Santana were living together somewhere in Texas as Dallas Cowboy's cheerleaders and Artie and Tina had gone their separate ways. One lived in Florida. The other in Colorado. Will hadn't heard much from them and it surprised him. Rachel was shocked as he relayed this information. She never figured the two would split.

"They were too cute together. I never told them that." She laughed suddenly, bringing him almost to a halt. "I remember on New Year's Eve they were together, lying on a blanket, tracing the outlines of constelations or something."

He stopped. "New Year's?"

They were in her office. She was the senior English teacher. She grabbed her box of personals from the shocked Will and set them on her desk.

"Yes, New Year's."

"You were there the whole time?"

She nodded. "I was observing."

It was his turn to laugh. "_Observing_? Rachel Berry isn't one to observe."

She spun around quickly attempting to hide from his stare and to hide the blush rising to her cheeks. "I couldn't face you."

He walked around and placed a finger under her chin and raised her head up to meet his gaze.

"Why not?"

"I'm sorry if I found you so damn irresistable in that stupid sweater vest!" Rachel sighed.

"I think you found me more irresistable with it off." Her eyes grew cup saucers wide. He froze, amazed that had actually came out of his mouth. "Sorry, I was out of line."

"No, it's not that. I just, I think I forgot about that." She paused. "I was pretty tipsy that night."

"As were we all, I'm afraid..." He trailed off wanting to say more but afraid to. He really wanted to know what she really _did_ remember that night.

"Did I--" she cut off abruptly, making some rather obsene hand gestures he wasn't sure he'd ever seen Rachel Berry do. Nor would he probably ever see her do them again.

She apparently didn't remember much. He nodded when he figured out she was asking about them sleeping together. She didn't look away humiliated or bite her lip and blush. No, she just looked at him square in the eye with a grin spread widely across her lips. He wasn't sure what kind of signals she was sending him but something coursed through his veins and he had to restrain himself before he jumped her right then and there. Not that it mattered. They were alone in the school because it was so early in the day and so late in the week. Most of the other faculty members had already put the finishing touches of their classrooms and janitors weren't needed yet.

"Rachel," he breathed huskily, moving closer to her.

"Yes?" she whispered as he backed her into her desk.

"Want to go out some time?"

Their faces were inches apart.

"Sure."

He closed the gap between them and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow at seven."

And with that, they were finally getting somewhere.

* * *

That my friends was the end! I hope you had a good journey into the ever blooming relationship between Rachel and Will :D I know I did!


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